Merry Christmas, everyone!

I hope you all have had a wonderful Christmas and were able to spend time with your families. We spent the day hanging out at home, with Andy working on fix-it projects around the house while I assembled 183 cuccis. Can you imagine how much work it is to roll out, fill, and cut slits in 183 cookies? If you can't, I can tell you with assurance it is an extremely labor intensive undertaking, but I wanted to have a bunch of them to take with me on Thursday when I go to see my grandma. I am going down to South Florida for the day Thursday to visit my grandma and my mom and dad will be there at the same time so I will get to see them too. I will be a welcome visitor when I come bearing cuccis. Well actually, they would welcome me regardless, but it never hurts to bring cuccis anyway.

Only one more day to go and we will have made it to Thanksgiving vacation. Ah, who am I kidding- I am a big nerd that enjoys my work, so it is not as though I am suffering through anything, but a break can be nice.

Things are going really well for me at work and that is a great thing. I am finally making a big difference in a place where it is difficult to do anything but make a small ripple. I hope that you all have a nice Thanksgiving, whatever your plans are. I will be here as usual and posting, so stop by if you have nothing to do. I'll try to post something fun.

Andy and I are slaving over our Christmas cards now, trying to get them out as soon as possible. If you are one of my blog friends and would like to be on our Christmas card list, please email me your address if I don't already have it. Thanks!

Five years ago today there was a small ceremony in our backyard and Andy and I were married, for better or for worse. I would have to say that it has definitely been for better; we have a wonderful life and are each other's best friend. I can honestly say that we not only love each other, but really like each other too and enjoy spending time together. We just really "go" together. Andy loves animals almost as much as I do, loves nature, and shares all the same dreams for our future together, so I think we were made for each other.

This afternoon we went for our anniversary dinner to Carrabba's, which is one of our favorite restaurants. Interestingly, we had the same waitress that we had the very first time we went in there, over five years ago. It was funny to think back about how much our lives have changed since that time when we were sitting only a couple of booths away. And dinner was excellent, too.

Happy fifth anniversay, sweetie. I hope we'll be together for at least another ten times that. I love you!

I love Thanksgiving. What I love even more than having two days off to eat great food and shop is not having to go anywhere and being able to enjoy the day with my own little immediate family of just Andy, the dogs, the bird and the tortoise.

We have our Thankgivings down to a science now. A week or so before the big day we will stop by the deli while we are grocery shopping and order ourselves a turkey dinner. We have a wonderful grocery store here, Publix, and their deli makes fabulous food. The day before Thanksgiving, I pick up the fully cooked turkey and side dishes and stow them in the fridge. About an hour and a half before we are ready to eat we pop the turkey in the oven to warm it up, and the stuffing and mashed potatoes go in a half an hour later. They even cook in the containers that they come in, so there are no pans to wash. It is all so easy and stress free and then we have a lovely turkey dinner and tons of turkey leftover for sandwiches and soups and salads when we are done.

We ate early today because we didn't want to eat lunch and have it spoil our turkey appetites but we were starving, and hey, why not? Now we are all set for an afternoon of watching football, perusing the sale ads in the newspaper for tomorrow and napping. Just perfect. Did I mention that I love Thanksgiving?

So today is Valentine's Day. Holidays are really weird to me because when I was a kid, my parents owned a flower shop. Holidays were the busiest times of year and were extremely stressful. I even grew to dread certain ones, and Valentine's Day was the worst, because in the flower industry it is the busiest. VD, we used to call it, and it was hated almost as much as the other meaning of those initials. We also never went overboard on the holidays with gift giving and cards and such, and that is totally fine with me, because that stuff is a lot of work. I mean I enjoy certain elements of the holidays, especially ones that give me time off from work, but then again they are just days to me.

I have a habit when things are particularly busy or I am not prepared for a holiday to "opt out." I will tell Andy, "let's just skip Valentine's Day this year", or something like that and we will just pretend it didn't happen. And that's what we did today. We had too much crap going on and I just said "forget it." I even opted out of Christmas the year before last. I am a real grinch, aren't I?

For those of you who don't know, today is a holiday known as Christmas Second Day, as it is celebrated in the U.S. Virgin Islands and apparently no where else in the world. I found it very interesting when I lived in the the Virgin Islands that they had so many holidays. Some of them were extremely ridiculous, too. Here is the list, according to Fodor's Travel website of holidays recognized by the USVI:

New Year's Day
Three King's Day (January 6)
Martin Luther King's Birthday (Third Monday in January)
President's Day (Third Monday in February)
Transfer Day - the day of transfer from the Danes to the U.S. (March 31)
Holy Thursday
Good Friday
Easter Sunday
Memorial Day (Last Monday in May)
Organic Act Day - V.I. constitution created by the U.S. Congress (Third Monday in June)
Emancipation Day - Von Scholten emancipation declaration (July 3)
U.S. Independence Day - (July 4)
Hurricane Supplication Day (Fourth Monday in July)
Labor Day (First Monday in September)
Columbus Day / V.I. Puerto Rico Friendship Day (Second Monday in October)
Hurricane Thanksgiving Day (Third Monday in October)
Liberty Day - D. Hamilton Jackson Day (November 1)
Veterans Day (November 11)
Thanksgiving Day (Fourth Thursday in November)
Christmas Day (December 25)
Christmas Second Day (December 26)

Add to that "October Sunday" which isn't a real holiday but they have lots of parties and events for it, and the four days in the spring when "Carnival" is held, and you are up to twenty-six days of holidays, one day for every other week of the entire YEAR! Talk about crazy (but in a good way, I guess, unless you need to go to the bank or something). There are a lot of French people there too, so Bastille Day is also celebrated, and then there are wild "Full Moon Parties" on one of the nearby British Virgin Islands (Tortola) which are held, of course, on every full moon. People go over there to bars where they are served psychedelic shroom tea, hallucinate, and then pass out on the beaches.

Anyway, of the list above, the absolute stupidest holiday is Hurricane Thanksgiving Day. It is held on the third Monday in October and it is a holiday to give thanks for making it through MOST of the hurricane season without a major hurricane. I guess when they get wiped out by one, they don't hold a Hurricane Thanksgiving that year? I mean it is fine to have a Hurricane Thanksgiving and all, but why not have it at the END of hurricane season?

Since it is just me and Andy here, and no other family, we tend to have rather unconventional holidays. Take today for example. This morning while everyone was huddled around their respective Christmas trees, we were at the beach, of all places. We got up this morning and took a little ride over to Cocoa Beach and stood in the sand, watched the birds, and listened to the waves. The water wasn't even THAT cold on our feet, but it was way too cold for swimming, although there were a couple of crazies out there in the water.

I love the beach in winter, it is so relaxing and beautiful. I know it seems weird to most people to go get all sandy on Christmas Day, but there is just something cool about it. And there was no pressure to get in the water because it was cold. I love swimming and all, but it seems like every time Andy and I go to that beach and get in the water, a HUGE fish will bump into my leg or brush up against me sending me running screaming out of the water. You know we have lots of shark attacks around here, so you can never be too careful.The part that bothers me the most is that you can't see what is swimming in the water all around you. If I could just see, it wouldn't be an issue for me. Like when I lived in St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands. There was all kinds of life in the water there, but since I could see it through the crystal clear water, I was okay with it.

So even though we are having a weird Christmas here, I hope you are having the Christmas you've been dreaming of, whether it is a white one, or sandy like mine. Merry Christmas everyone!

So Thanksgiving is over now and it is time to move on to the Christmas season. This is one of my favorite times of year, and I totally missed it last year since Andy and I were so worn out and disgusted from the pool building fiasco that we had no energy to even think about decorating for Christmas. It is really neat this year though, to unpack all of the great ornaments that I had forgotten about. I am totally anal about my Christmas decorations; everything is carefully packaged in tissue paper, bubble wrap and carefully labeled boxes. it is so much fun to "discover" all the ornaments again, as it has been two years since I have seen them.

I love decorating the tree, and Andy always bitches that I never let him help, but the truth is that he is always busy with something else and misses out. I waited for his ass today, but it took him forever to get ready to work on the tree and it was tough not to just do it without him. Men are pains in the ass. Here are some Christmas tree photos. As always (okay, most of the time) click on the photos for bigger pictures.

Four years ago today Andy and I were married here in our own back yard. We had a small casual backyard barbeque style wedding, at very little expense, and it just goes to show how the type of wedding has very little bearing on how the relationship turns out, because even though we did not have a big formal fancy wedding, we love each other more every day and look forward to spending the rest of our lives together.

We decided we didn't want to spend our anniversary cooking, so we ordered a fully cooked turkey dinner with everthing from Publix, the grocery store here, and all we have to do is heat it up. It is just the two of us this year, so we are going to have a ton of leftovers, but that is okay. I hope that all of you are able to spend this holiday with someone you love too. Happy Thankgiving to everyone and enjoy your day!

I am pretty excited about getting some time off work for Thanksgiving. To top it off, Andy's and my anniversary falls on Thanksgiving day this year, so it will be really nice to celebrate that as well. But, it left me with a bit of a dilemma as far as what to get him for our anninversary. He didn't want me to spend much money on him for our anninversary because he is drooling over a laptop computer that he wants (and actually needs) for Christmas and would rather I saved for that. But still, I have to do something for him to show I love him. I came up with something that didn't cost a cent, and has some thought put into it, so he is bound to like it.

I painted this portrait of our newest dog, Annabel that we rescued almost two months ago. We have a whole pet portrait wall that contains paintings of all of our pets, past and present and the new painting will be a quite appropriate addition. All of the portraits are painted on wood, including the one I just did, so I was able to use scrap wood from the garage. Some of the portraits were done by me, and some were done by our favorite artist in Cocoa Village, the same one who painted most of the birds that appear in my blog templates (all of them except the toucan, so far). Here is the portrait wall, and the larger paintings are the ones I did. The little boxes made up uf several tiny paintings were done by Lori Prell.

Does that sound like it will make an okay anniversary gift when I am not supposed to spend much money? Do you have an idea for something better that I should know about?

Ever since I have known Andy, which is almost six years now, he always seems to be on second shift during Halloween, and I always end up home alone. There has only been one Halloween since we met that we were both home for trick-or-treating, and that was five years ago. I hate to be such a party pooper, but I actually hide out every year for Halloween. With all the dogs, it just isn't practical to try to hold them back from escaping out the front door while handing out candy, so I don't even try. There aren't many kids in my neighborhood anyway, so I don't feel too bad about it.

This Halloween follows tradition, and I will be here alone again while Andy is at work. This year I have even more of a reason not to pass out candy; it is because I have to wake up at 1:50 to be at work at 3:00am and work twelve hours tomorrow. I may be going in at three all week long, but it is too early to tell just yet. So here in a couple of hours I will be turning off lights in the house and hiding upstairs hoping people think I am not home. Pathetic, isn't it?

Yesterday afternoon when I got home from work I found a wrapped package on the table. Andy was still at work since he is on second shift still, but shortly after I got home he called, and asked if I had noticed the package. Of course I had. He said it was my birthday gift, but my birthday isn't until November 4th. I asked why it was there now, and when do I open it. He said "whenever you want" and I was amazed because I am the most impatient person on the planet and normally he makes me wait to open gifts. Did I wait to open it?

My sister Alison, turns twenty-six today, so everyone wish her a happy birthday. I can't believe she's twenty-six! I always think of her as so little; the little brat that used to bug me all the time. It amazed me when she hit certain milestones, like driving, getting married (she was married before I was!) and having kids. She has two beautiful children and they are growing up so fast. Well, happy birthday Alison, and try not to get old so fast, because I am five years ahead of you and I want to slow down!

This is a charcoal on paper drawing I did of my dear old dad, when he was a little one. I drew it from a photograph; wasn't he cute? Happy Father's Day, Dad. I am sure that Mom will show this post to you when she reads it. Of course I sent a card, and plan on calling tonight as well.

I am still going to get back to painting, but I haven't quite gotten started on that one yet. Soon. I couldn't bring myself to spend the day inside when it was so so nice out. I spent the afternnon split between cooking my three hour Island Black Bean soup and swimming. I took a little timer outside with me, and whenever it beeped I knew I had to go inside for a minute and add some more ingredients. It is one of those soups where things are added in stages. It turned out pretty good, but I think it was little bit better the last time I made it. Oh well.

Andy worked on the cabinet he is building out in the garage today. It is a beautiful pine hutch with a domed top that is going to go on the back porch and house all of our pool equipment like chemicals, test kits, towels, etc. We picked out a weatherproofing stain for it at Home Depot this morning as well as some polyurethane for the inside. It is looking really good, and the only things left to do on it are to add the shelves to the interior and get a sheet of copper for the top of it- the roof is covered in copper, it looks really cool. I will definitely post pictures when it is done.

I hope everyone has a happy Father's Day. All of you good fathers out there really deserve it.

It's Friday, and I have been waiting all week for it. I went on a nice walk this morning of a little more than three miles in the blistering heat, and then came back and cleaned the pool filter and added chemicals so it will be perfect and sparkly for the weekend. It had been getting a little cloudy due to the torrential downpours we have been getting lately. It has been hotter than hell in the mornings, and then about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, it starts just dumping.

Speaking of the rains, at work the other night when it was pouring, water started running down one of the walls, and when it hit the light switch a blue spark shot out and all the lights on the circuit went out. Some of our buildings leak like crazy- that building in particular is a relic from the Gemini era, and it definitely shows it age. Sometimes I think we should get hazard pay just for working in there.

Well, tonight at work something sort of interesting happened. I serve on two levels of awards boards at work, groups that decides who gets awarded cold hard cash and fancy trophies based on their work on the shuttle program. The highest award we give out, at the end of the year is $10,000, so we are not talking chump change here. Most of the awards are about $500, though. Well, tonight in my e-mail were links to some of the nominations for this month, and I noticed right away that Andy's name was among them. He works in a completely different area than I do, out at the launch pad, which is about eight miles from where I work, but it is still the same company. I read the nomination and it is actually very good (of course I am biased). The nominations are all strictly confidential, so I am not allowed to tell him, and that fact is going to just about kill me because we tell each other just about everything. I can't ever surprise him for Christmas or anything because I cannot keep a secret worth a damn. So it will be interesting to see if I can keep my big mouth shut that long. I would like it to be a surprise for him, but it is going to be tough.

I am posting while sitting out by the pool under what I call "the cabana" right now so that I actually feel like I am on vacation even though I am at home. It is fairly like a resort out here, and if it weren't for the pool it would be way too hot to be out here. I even stopped by Cocoa Beach this morning for a little while when I was out running errands. It was totally packed- a sea of beach umbrellas in some areas.

It looks to me like the drug dealer across the street is going to be doing some partying this weekend too. I have already seen all kinds of people bringing crap into the house for it so I can only assume. Drug Dealer's mother stopped by with groceries for him and then picked up all the bills out of his mailbox so she could pay them for him. It must be nice to have your own party house, not work and have someone else pay all the bills and do everything to support your drug habits for you, huh? I know, you're probably thinking "if he is a drug dealer, why can't he pay his own bills?" The answer is he is not a GOOD drug dealer and probably smokes up more than what he sells.

I celebrated Mexican Independence Day this evening by cooking some lovely quesadillas with whole wheat tortillas, low-fat cheese, chicken, tomatoes, and serrano peppers. Despite the good meal, I have been a little bit ticked off ever since I got home because I got a copy of the letter written fom our pool company to the Better Business Bureau in reponse to our complaint in the mail today. While they did admit some of the problems they caused, they stated that we had been adequately compensated (we have not) and that we refused to let them continue to correct the work and we were not open to their suggestions. Well, some of this is true; after eight months, and the pool being refinished once already and looking worse afterward, we were not open to them coming back and tearing things up again. They couldn't get it right the first two times, and they damaged a lot of our property, even going out of their way to do so- why should we let them continue to destroy our property? Eight months of a construction zone in our backyard after being told in our contract that the pool would be completed in ten to twelve weeks was more than we could stand. Their "suggestions" included saying that they could put a rock over a damaged place of the interior to hide it. Kind of like sweeping something under the rug, isn't it? Do crappy work and then cover it up with rocks. Great idea.